How to Share Your Story

Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast.

Church of the Lookout is an older Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love.

Visit us online at thelookout.church.

Yeah?

I noticed how the hordes from the back moved forward when you were asked to, but but uh I won't hold it against you.

Um it's nice to be here, always nice to be here.

It feels like coming home every time.

So I haven't listened.

Uh Tiana, thank you for the intro because it was perfect wherever you are.

But um I did not scan the QR code and I did not listen to all of the previous sermons in this series.

So if I'm uh repeating myself, I just kind of figure it's what you need to hear.

Is that all right?

Yeah, I never get stuffed the first time around.

Do you?

Seriously?

I didn't think so.

So uh it might just be a little different take on the same stuff, or it might be um something brand new, or it might be something repetitive that you've been ignoring the Lord when He says to you over and over, and here it comes again, and so let that slap you upside the head, as my dad would have said.

So just want to uh give you a little bit of background here because if ever there was a person who's not naturally evangelistic, that would be me.

I am not.

Can anybody is this a club that other people belong to as well?

Be bold, be up, okay.

So, on the other hand, I had a mother who was, oh my goodness.

She was, I told my son David, many of you know David, I told him the other day, this is the way I'm gonna start on Sunday morning at the lookout.

My mom was a Southern Bell, an extrovert, an evangelist, and a Baptist.

And I don't even have to explain that.

75% of you know exactly what I'm talking about with that word combination.

The woman was more opposite from me than just about anybody I have ever known.

It was a challenge, to say the least.

But I do want to tell you a little bit about what um, how she influenced me.

So when I was a kid, my dad was in the Air Force, and we lived in England.

We moved to England to this little village of 500 people, and we were the only Americans there.

And my mom, Southern Bell Extrovert, Evangelist, Baptist in England, can you even picture it in the 50s?

Yeah, because I'm old.

And we moved there, and my mom met a person.

There was a Church of England at the beginning of this village, and you drive straight through, and that was the end of the village.

There were no off-roads, and there was a Church of England at the end of the end of the village.

And mom met one person who loved the Lord from one of those churches, and she gave the woman her idea, and her idea was to do what we called in those days good news club.

Anybody at all know what I'm talking about?

The good news club?

Oh, good, okay.

Uh a good news club is basically a little backyard VBS that you do every week.

You invite the neighborhood kids, they come, you feed them, you tell them a story about Jesus, maybe sing a little song, play a game, whatever, and send them home.

Mom wanted to do this for this village, for the village kids.

So she told this one woman that she met who was also a Christian, and she uh told her that this was her idea, she wanted to start doing it right away.

And we're the new kids on the block, right?

I mean, reserved little tiny town that's been uh the same names in the graveyard for generations, right?

Nobody knew moves in.

And uh the lady told her that would not be a very good idea, that she should not do that, that she would not be accepted, and that nobody would trust her and the children wouldn't come.

And mom did it anyway because she's a Southern Bell Extrovert Evangelist Baptist.

And uh mom didn't talk to the lady about it, did it the whole three and a half years we lived there every week.

And mom didn't talk to the lady about it again until the week before we moved back to the States, and the lady approached her and said, I want you to know I've been watching.

And she said, and counting, and you have told the story of Jesus to every single child in this village.

Everyone has heard the gospel, everyone has heard somebody pray, everyone has heard the story of Jesus, everyone has memorized Bible verses, every single kid in the whole village.

You know, and what do you do with that besides go mom?

You know, horribly embarrassing for me growing up with a mother like that.

I'll be really honest with you, honestly.

Um, but go mom! I mean, wow, what a legacy.

So then we moved back to the States, went to a Baptist church, of course, and she that woman she dragged me to every visitation.

She signs up for the visitation committee, because there's a committee for everything in.

And because she's never met a stranger, anybody knew who would come to the church.

She'd be the one who would go that week to their house with me in tow and knock on their door and welcome and bring something baked that she had made that morning, and she's a good cook.

And she'd do the visitation thing.

I was horrified.

I hated it with everything that was in me.

I hated it.

And then one day we met this guy, and I don't remember why exactly we were at the house their house, because I didn't know him, mom didn't know him, but mom had met this lady somewhere, probably in the grocery store.

I and they were talking about something, and mom said something that triggered the guy somehow.

I don't even know.

I don't remember.

So that part of the story must not be relevant because what I remember was this guy, they were sitting next to each other at the table, and this guy leaned toward my mom, and I thought, that's I remember as a little kid, little kid, thinking that's bold.

He's leaning toward, and he got out his finger and he pointed it at her.

And he said something that just, she had said something that just unnerved him, and he said, Lady, you go to hell.

And my Southern extroverted evangelist Baptist mother said, Sir, I'm sorry, I can't do that.

I've accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my own personal Lord and Savior, and I'll be going to heaven.

I was going, the lightning bolt is gonna strike that man, it's gonna kill him.

God is gonna kill that man for telling my mother to go to hell when she said, Sir, it's impossible.

I won't be going to hell, but thanks.

You know.

My eyes were that I'm going, what's gonna happen?

What's gonna happen?

So we're not done yet because our church had a bus.

We picked up kids for Sunday school every morning, every Sunday morning.

It was blue.

It was ugly and it broke down every freaking time we ever got in it.

But we made the rounds and picked up these kids for Sunday school all the time.

And then on Saturday mornings, we loaded into the blue bus, and you know what I'm gonna say.

We went to a neighborhood, pick a neighborhood, any neighborhood, and did door-to-door evangelism.

Us, the Mormons, and the J Dubs, you know.

I I hated it.

And mom hauled me around to all of these places all the time, and there was no way I could get out of it.

Knock on the door.

Have you ever heard of the four spiritual laws?

God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

And I'm going, I know he loves them, but man, this is brutal.

And that's the way I grew up.

Not ever having any desire.

I've got baggage.

I got evangelism baggage and a lot of it.

For some people, sharing their story, totally natural, telling the story of Jesus, normal.

It's never met a stranger, they're fine with that.

I am not one of those.

I'm just not.

I'm still not.

I've been in full-time ministry for over 40 years.

I am still not.

It's awkward for me.

Are you okay with that?

Okay.

Because it was weird hearing you so quiet.

So, part of my problem is that I've always felt like evangelism was too complicated.

See there, you know.

You know stuff.

I get nervous.

I mean, what happens if I forget the second four spiritual laws?

What if what happens in somebody?

I mean, that's the only chance they get it.

What if they pay for it for eternity because I can't remember one of the four spiritual laws?

You know, this is the guilt that I grew up with, with the nervousness.

If there are souls hanging in the balance, I don't want to carry the weight of that.

You know what I mean?

I what if I'm the only one who ever tells them about Jesus and I screw it up?

Right?

What if I'm what if I miss an important part of the story of the cross and the resurrection and God gets mad?

How long's he gonna stay mad?

I did it's his story, and I just screwed up his story.

These are the thoughts of a non-evangelist person who is expected to evangelize.

Besides that, I'm an introvert.

Honestly, by personality, those of you who know me well know that I am a serious, extreme introvert.

I I what do I do about that?

I don't like to talk to people, and I'm not good at it, and I'm especially not good at with people I don't know.

Okay, with no anybody.

I'm not good at it with anybody.

What do I do with that?

And then I've been in ministry and I do international travel for for 25 years now.

I've done a ton of international travel with Bible teaching, and you know what people say to me, these natural evangelist people all the time?

They say, ooh, airplanes, captive audience.

Oh, I can't even tell you the pressure.

I can't even tell you.

It's a divine appointment, they say.

Don't miss a golden opportunity, they say.

Someone sitting in a seat nearby may hear overhear you talking about your testimony, and then it's two birds with one stone, they say.

I I just I hate this stuff.

Luke, is this okay for me to be this?

Yeah.

And it's not that I don't, I've had some great airplane conversations.

Took me a while to warm into it, I'll give you that.

But I've had some great airplane conversations.

But for me and my lifestyle and what I do for a living, basically, airplanes are like a Sabbath day.

It's a time to get away and restore.

Yeah?

I don't want to make friends.

I'm not there to make friends.

I I don't want to be held captive to their conversation.

Can I just say that?

And I want to do them the service of not being held captive to mine.

Because how many times do you go, uh, excuse me, flight attendant, I'd really like to move.

I have done it, but so yeah, I got baggage.

And anything that resembles evangelism has usually seemed like just a whole lot of complicated pressure to me.

Anyone relate?

Yeah?

Good.

Thank you for coming.

That's all.

Not really.

So I do think we have some cultural challenges now, though.

One of them is this word Christian.

Agreed?

Yeah?

I don't even need to go into it that much.

But when it comes to sharing our stories, I wonder if maybe we should change our verbiage and start using the term Jesus follower or something like that rather than Christian, because Christian has a thousand different definitions.

If you talk to a thousand different people, you're gonna get a different one with everybody, right?

And usually it means something culturally like uh you're judgmental, you're narrow-minded, you're not relational.

Yeah?

So why go there and set ourselves up for more baggage?

Why would we do that?

Why not just say I follow Jesus?

And that at least narrows the field a little bit, doesn't it?

It clarifies some things, really clarifies some things.

So another reason why I think that it would be good to refer to ourselves that way is it's easier to talk about someone than some idea that I think or believe.

Because nobody nobody cares what I think.

Nobody cares what you think, honestly, what you believe?

Seriously, everybody knows everybody believes something, nobody really cares.

But if I'm talking about someone, that changes.

It's easier to talk about someone that I love than some idea that I love.

So in fact, we can't help but talk about those we love.

Don't we do that naturally anyway?

I mean, you don't, you're not gonna spend very much time with me before I start talking about a few members of my family.

You know, people we love, we naturally talk about.

We know we love Jesus, we'll naturally talk about him.

It's part, he's part of my story.

I can't, I can't not.

Someone can't say they they get to know me if they haven't heard from Jesus because he's he's my life.

That's who I talk about.

So we love Jesus, we talk about him without forcing him on anyone, right?

We talk enthusiastically, I do, about how cool my grandkids are, but I'm not trying to force them on you.

I'm just telling you I really like them.

And they make me laugh, and they're cute.

I'm telling you my part of my grandma's story.

It's natural, it's normal, right?

Most people, most people actually respond pretty positively to descriptions of my grandkids.

Mostly that's because of the way I describe them.

How do you describe Jesus?

Natural, normal, he's part of your story, part of your life.

You drop his name.

You know?

Without apology, I might say.

So today, excuse me, today I'm not gonna give you an evangelistic formula.

I don't have one.

And if I did, I wouldn't, I wouldn't do that to you because I don't want to complicate and make more pressure.

Um I'm not gonna give you something for this is how you share your story or a storytelling method.

But because of my own baggage, honestly, I need simpler, easier, more natural ways to talk about Jesus.

And I'm guessing that many of you do as well.

So instead, we're gonna talk about principles.

I'm a Bible teacher.

What can I say?

We talk about principles.

So here it is.

We're all just a bunch of humans sharing our lives and our stories with each other.

There you go.

We're not trying to convince anyone of anything.

That's just dumb.

I think.

No agenda, no manipulation, we're just being ourselves.

We're being ourselves who are led by the Spirit of God.

And not presuming anything of him, but being led by him and me just being me, without apology.

So when we get together with friends, or we even meet a stranger, basically what we do is we tell each other's stories, right?

Someone says, Wow, you'd never believe what happened to me this morning.

Or this guy came up to me and he just started this morning.

I see Pat.

Pat said, in passing, um, I've got some weird thing going on in my hip.

I said, Yeah, I do too.

Those were two quick stories.

That's what we're talking about this morning, sharing your story.

Those were two really quick stories.

She said something, I could relate to it, and then later on she had the team pray for us that this thing wouldn't bother us while we're ministering.

That was two quick stories that had an effect, right?

That simple, seriously, that simple.

We respond with a relatable story of our own.

It's normal, it's natural.

So about eight, nine months ago, I moved to an area.

I moved to Loveland from Longmont.

I've been lived in Longmont 45 years, moved to Loveland.

Don't know anyone in Loveland, seriously.

I didn't know anyone in Loveland.

Whenever I wanted to do anything outside of Longmont, I always came south.

I never went north.

So I didn't know anyone, and I moved from a single family dwelling into a condo.

Major change for this person.

Uh huge challenge for this introvert because other people live in the building.

But I've got this thing in me that I want to be a good neighbor.

I really do.

I want to be known as being nice.

I I don't I want friends.

You want friends?

I want friends.

And honestly, I want people to like me.

Is that a crime?

I we don't often say that straight up, but yeah, I want you to like me.

I want them to like me.

So this introvert pushes herself.

I do stuff like say hi.

That's big.

This is big.

I do stuff like, oh, you just moved in.

I've already been here a few months.

Wanna come over for coffee?

I did that twice.

This is good.

This is major improvement.

You have no idea how hard this is for me.

Really, really hard.

And I'm getting I'm getting pretty good at this.

I like this.

And you know what people's first question is what do you do?

Oh, dang it.

Because I've been in ministry all my adult life.

So I've got to figure out a way how to do this.

So I've got an I've got a strategy.

I I kind of need a strategy for me.

You you might need one for you if you're kind of like me.

I have um we creep into it.

Wait, I don't say, well, I'm a Jesus follower and I travel all over the world telling people about the truth of the Bible because you know you're an idiot if you don't believe it.

I don't, I don't, I don't jump off the deep end.

I wade into the the kiddie pool a toe at a time, kind of.

And so what do you do?

And I say, well, either I've got two options.

I say, either I'm a teacher or I work with young adults internationally.

And then they ask another question.

You know what it is?

What do you teach?

Well, I did teach music for 35 years, so if I feel some with them, I always go the music route.

If I don't, I go a different route.

What kind of work do you do internationally?

They ask.

I say, well, I teach music for 35 years.

Or, or they then they say, in public school?

And that's where things get dicey because I say, no, in parochials, I use the word parochial, not Christian, in parochial schools and privately.

Or I'll say, I do leadership development for faith in faith-based communities.

Now they've got the word parochial and they've got the word faith-based.

And now they get to choose how the conversation goes.

And there's always a pause, and they try they sit there deciding whether or not they want to do the religious conversation.

And I'm fine with that.

I've got a hunch God is too.

Because that's enough.

I've said enough.

I've planted a seed for a future conversation.

And if they want to have it, I'm here.

I'll still creep into it, but I'm here.

Maybe there will be more later, but at least they know a bit about it, my background.

You know what I did?

I shared my story.

I shared enough of my story to give them an opportunity to want more or not.

And I will not force that on them, one way or the other.

Because I want to be nice and I want friends.

Yeah, call it selfish, call it whatever you want.

I I don't want to put people off with the best thing that's ever happened to me in my life, and that's Jesus.

Why would I do that?

So if I plant a seed and they know a little bit, they hear the word faith-based, and then I follow it up with, hey, you want to come out come over for coffee?

Or better yet, I bake something because my mother did give me that gift.

I bake something, or we go to a movie, or we take a walk, or something like that.

They find out through those kinds of interactions, frankly, that I'm not a narrow minded judgmental Jesus nut job.

Yeah, isn't it true?

Yeah?

Cause they won't wanna be my friend if they think I'm a I actually wrote it out.

Where did it go?

Narrow-minded judge me judgmental Jesus, not John.

They they won't they won't want him.

I want them to want him.

So they watch, they listen.

When we're out together, they they check me out.

How does the faith-based thing line up with the words of her mouth and her actions?

And that gives them the info they need to know how nervous they should be about hanging out with me.

So the deal is, you guys, we already know how to share our story.

We don't need to go to a class on how to share our story.

Nobody needs me needs to teach me how to tell my own story.

I was there.

It happened to me.

I can tell you that.

It's easy.

It's easy peasy.

I could, we could sit here for the rest of the day and you could all tell each other's stories of stuff that you know happened to you because you were there.

We don't have to practice, we don't need classes on that.

You know, I used to be fairly outspoken about the idea of you have you heard this term, friendship evangelism?

Yeah, I wasn't a fan.

You know why I wasn't a fan and I was outspoken about it?

Because I didn't understand it.

I was being judgmental.

I would I didn't understand it.

I didn't understand that the concept that Jesus followers are all a bunch of farmers.

I didn't get that.

We're seed planters.

We either plant a seed or we're watering something or we're nurturing a seed or we're harvesting something.

That's what we do.

And it's natural, it's normal.

Rarely do we get to be with someone and walk with them through the whole planting the first seed to full maturity.

That just hardly ever happens, does it?

But Paul teaches us these things clearly.

And I didn't equate this farmer mentality with my faith, with sharing my faith, because of all my baggage.

All I could hear was, you have to tell the whole gospel story and you have to lead someone through to the magic prayer.

And it's okay to just drop a seed.

It's okay with the Lord.

I have one of my heroes, literary spoken, just incredible mind.

Her name is Landa Cope, and she wrote a book called Clearly Communicating Christ.

And this quote changed my evangelistic life or the lack thereof.

Here's what she says: any process that moves someone closer to the truth or even closer to an openness to the truth is successful evangelism.

It was like this 14-ton weight just came off of me when I read that.

I had to read it over and over and over.

I went, oh, God's okay with me?

He's okay with me.

He's not expecting me to be my mother.

He's okay with me not giving the four spiritual life.

He's okay.

Let's read this together.

Read it kind of slowly.

Let this thing sink in.

Are you ready?

One, two, three, go.

Any process that moves someone closer to the truth or even closer to an openness to the truth is successful evangelism.

Do you like that, Luke?

That's really good.

This is the power of a smile.

It's the power of a touch.

It's the power of a blessing.

It's the why?

Because he's my story.

This introvert is going to learn to like you and act like it and treat you like it and talk to you like it because he's my story.

This has served me well.

The power of a word of blessing, the power of buying somebody a cup of coffee.

Because it moves them closer to the openness to the truth, and then you can be a farmer and plant a seed in Jesus' name.

He gets it, he's happy, they are starting to get it.

And for me, I'm growing up.

I'm growing in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.

Is this helping?

It's helping me.

Thank you for debriefing me this morning because obviously I've got stuff.

But what I didn't understand about the idea of friendship evangelism is this.

You don't have a place to speak into someone's life until they give it to you.

Now, occasionally we all know that Holy Spirit just shows up and we do something, we follow his lead, right?

But I'm not convinced that's the norm, you guys.

I think that more natural, more normal way to live is that we wait for somebody to give us a place to speak into their lives, because we've earned it.

Because they know they can trust us to some degree or the other.

Because we've been friendly, nice, kind, generous.

I think, I think that's what happens more often than not.

But does Holy Spirit sometimes say, yeah, Tiana, I want you to go pray with that woman?

Absolutely.

But we don't, we I don't think we dare assume that or presume that God is always going to work that way, and so we insert ourselves into people's lives.

I think we need to be more careful with people than that.

So we'd be a friend.

Personally, I would rather be someone's friend than their project.

Wouldn't you?

In fact, I would rather have a friend than a notch in my spiritual belt.

Because if that's my approach, I've already started wrong.

Traveling around the world, I often hear stories from brothers and sisters in the Muslim country in Muslim countries.

And when it comes to evangelism, their voices and their hands are tied.

They cannot speak openly about Jesus, but you know what they can do openly?

Be somebody's friend.

They can have neighbors over for dinner, they can babysit their kids, they can visit them when they're sick, they can laugh and play in the park, they can attend celebrations and sporting goods and activities, and they make friends because everybody needs friends, and most people even want them.

So we don't do this manipulatively or with ulterior motives.

There's no, it's not necessary.

We don't need a hook, Lord help us.

We don't need a hook.

We make friends because people are valuable, and because they need a friend, and so do we.

If you have a hidden agenda, it will be obvious, they'll see right through you and they'll reject you straight up.

So be friendly.

Be honest, be kind.

Kindness and friendship, it's pretty irresistible for the most part.

Eventually, people will respond one way or the other, I have found, because they know they can trust.

And trust is an essential part of friendship.

You know, when I moved a few months ago, I had this interaction with a woman who I didn't think would be a natural fit as a friend, like a personality gel.

I didn't I didn't think it would be that way.

But we had a couple of conversations, I don't even remember what was about.

And then she showed up at my door one day and she had that look on her face.

You know the sheepish look, the I really don't want to say this, I don't want to say this, I don't want to be here, but I'm here.

And oh you know that that look?

It's a really obvious look.

And she said, I know I don't know you, but I know you well enough to know you're nice.

And I thought, that, yes, yes, yes, this is progress.

I'm so proud of me.

And she said, I have a problem.

I need a ride to the airport, and it's tomorrow, and it's at 4 15 in the morning.

And I said, you know what?

If anybody understands rides to the airport, it's me.

Absolutely.

I will be there.

And thank you for thinking I'm nice enough that you could come ask.

Seriously.

Something had happened.

You guys, this is like miracle territory for me.

That somebody felt like I was approachable when I'm when we don't know each other at all and we only had a couple of short interactions.

I can't tell you, this is like party time for me.

It's of course, party for me is hey.

But but major, I I don't invite anybody to my parties up with it like that.

I just I drink a glass of water and go, yeah.

It's true.

It's true.

But this is huge.

Can you see how huge this is for me?

That somebody would ask something like that.

It was really cool.

I was so happy.

Luke, when do you want me to quit?

Because I've got pages.

No, you can't tell teachers that whenever you want.

That's not a fair thing to tell.

What time do you guys usually wind it up?

Five, ten minutes.

Okay.

Here we go.

So uh Luke said something earlier about God is is um, he didn't say it this way, but God's a missional God.

How do we know that?

Because the word missions is all about sending.

That's what it means to send, to send.

So God sends.

Here's the way it goes biblically.

God sent Jesus, God and Jesus sent the Holy Spirit.

God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit send the church, God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, and the church send us individually.

Because it's it's a it's a process thing, it's a it's an authority thing, it's a it's a delegation thing, it's an impartation thing.

It's beautiful, it's such a great setup, and it's safe.

It really is safe when it's that way.

So we've got this missional God.

And I was thinking this week, how did Father send Jesus?

It's kind of a weird concept, but it says in John 20, 21 and 22, let's look at it together.

Didn't there used to be a screen up here that worked?

Yeah.

Okay.

Excuse me while I turn my back on you, and we read together.

Here we go.

Jesus said, Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

And with that, he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.

Those are cool verses.

Post-crucifixion, post-resurrection, before he ascends, Jesus comes and he tells his guys this thing.

So how if um Jesus is sending us the way Father sent him, I had to ask the question this week, well, then how did that look?

Jesus was sent to his family.

And I mean, he was Jesus.

Right?

He was, he lived an entire life in front of these guys that was pointing to the Messiah.

He was he was telling them about Jesus.

Thank you for laughing.

Because when I thought of that line, I laughed too.

He was telling them about Jesus.

He was evangelizing by being their brother, and most of them did not believe him until after the resurrection.

That should bring some comfort.

Yeah?

I hope.

So he's sent to his family.

He was sent to dad's business.

He was a businessman.

He sent to those guys, businessmen.

His neighborhood, his synagogue, Nazareth, Galilee, Israel.

That's who he is sent to.

The world.

Who are we sent to?

Our family?

Our co-workers?

Our neighborhood?

Our church.

I'll just pick one out of the air here.

Boulder.

Boulder County, Colorado, U.S., the world.

Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the other uttermost parts of the earth.

That's a hard word, uttermost.

That's who he sent to.

And how did he do it?

Everyday life?

Just normal.

Just normal.

To us, that translates to backyard barbecues with neighbors, lunch with coworkers.

You want to go to a concert?

Let's go to a movie, play dates.

You already have something in common with these people.

You don't have to figure out how to share your story.

There's no magic formula.

Be you with something in common with them.

And just because Jesus is natural and normal to us, we naturally and normally talk about him in the course of a conversation.

Not a discourse, we just talk about him naturally in the course of a conversation.

You know, I was praying the other day and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And then move on.

Seeds.

Seeds.

It's kind, it's honest, and it's an opportunity.

Should they choose?

Jesus didn't push himself off on everybody.

Did he heal everybody in Israel?

No.

Did he feed everybody who was hungry?

No.

Did he deliver everybody who was demonized?

No.

He only did, he only said what he saw his father doing, what he heard his father saying.

Same with us.

No agenda, but being led by the Spirit.

We follow his lead.

It's kind, it's gentle, it's nice, and people respond.

They honestly do respond.

Because they probably haven't seen a Jesus follower like that.

Not often, anyway.

At least I didn't grow up that way.

Everybody is pretty pushy.

So I want to read this line.

I want to get it right, so I'll read it.

Being missional or evangelistic is not about adding activities to an already busy life.

Rather, it's being yourself as a Jesus follower in the everyday of your life, and yet with gospel and friendship intentionality as he leads.

It's natural, it's normal, as he leads.

He's my life.

It's about inviting other people into my life and naturally being part of theirs.

And for this, natural conversation happens.

We talk about our interests, we talk about our values, we talk about our priorities.

They talk about theirs, I talk about mine.

My priority is Jesus.

He is my highest value, my dearest friend.

So if I want to be a good friend to them, I won't keep that from them.

I'll be honest.

Make sense?

Yeah?

Okay, here's a thought.

How about leaving margin in your day?

I'm talking 10 minutes on the way to the grocery store.

You get there 10 minutes, you've got 10 extra minutes to go grocery shopping rather than cutting it to the wire.

And right before you go in, you say, Lord, anybody you want me to buy a coffee for today?

Help get something off the off a shelf?

Anybody you want me to smile at?

Stop and have a conversation with?

Because if you do, my answer is yes before I even get in there.

I've got 10 extra minutes.

If you need something done, I'm yours.

And if he doesn't, that's fine.

But if he does, it's set up.

What's 10 extra minutes, huh?

We can do that.

It's availability.

That's what gospel intentionality means.

I'm available if he leads, if he opens the door.

Otherwise, I'm just going to be nice.

And remember, any process that leads someone closer to the truth or even closer to an openness to the truth is successful evangelism.

I take heart with that.

I hope you do too.

Let's look at another one real quick.

Acts chapter 10, verse 37 and 38.

Acts 10:37

This is the story of Cornelius.

Let's read it together.

You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached.

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil because God was with them.

There's an anointing for going around doing good stuff.

There's an anointing of power and the spirit for going around doing good stuff.

I mean, seriously, that is so simple.

This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible.

God anointed, I mean, we could unpack this for the next three hours.

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power to go around doing good.

And in so doing, he was healing people who were under the oppression of the devil.

Why?

Because God was with him.

Well, God's with us.

And we ask for his anointing to literally go around doing good.

When I teach this with young adults, we read it together, we unpack it all, and then I say, Okay, you've got 10 minutes.

Leave this room and go do something good.

Ask Holy Spirit what you should do.

And they all sit there.

And they stare at me like I have three heads.

And I say, No, let me repeat that.

And I tell them again, and they all sit there and they stare at me.

And I say, get out of here.

Go do something good.

And on your way out the door, ask Holy Spirit what it should be.

And they come back ten minutes later, and it's like people responded.

People like it when other people are nice.

Go figure.

Jesus, anoint me.

Holy Spirit, anoint me with power to bring your presence.

Why?

Because God was with them.

To bring your presence into this situation by doing something good.

Pick something up for somebody, run an errand for somebody, do something for somebody.

It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter.

Hey, I'm taking a run to goodwill to drop off some stuff.

Anyone have anything they want to take with, uh want me to pick up and take?

Being nice.

It's part of telling our story.

We live the story.

We tell the story, and in the process, man, thank you so much.

That was so nice.

Yeah, I just, you know, I hadn't had that thought before to call you guys, but I think I think God kind of gave me that thought because I want to be nice.

Besides nothing.

So let's look at some questions, shall we?

Let's look at some application questions now.

Who are the people God is sending you to?

Where do they live?

Where do they hang out?

Here's the first one.

How can I reorient my life to be with those to whom I'm sent?

I'm sent.

Doesn't that kind of make sense?

Reorient my life to be with those to whom I'm sent.

If you're sent to your family, if you're sent to your coworkers, like we look, Jesus was, as the Father sent Jesus, so he's sending us.

Same kind of way.

So how can we reorient our minds and our lives to naturally set myself up to simply be with those people and be a farmer?

Drop some seeds.

Make Jesus normal in front of them because he's normal to you.

Be a friend.

Second question: what cultural language do those people to whom I'm sent, what cultural language do they speak?

Are they people with young families, business professional students?

Are they athletes?

Here's the question: how can I intentionally engage them in conversation?

Because when you say something to me, I'm gonna respond to something that's relatable.

It's called sharing your story.

And Jesus is bound to insert himself in something there.

Not manipulatively, not with an agenda, naturally.

Because he's natural and normal to me.

So, what's most important to these people to whom I'm sent?

Success, money, relationships, independence?

Here's the question: How can I add value to their lives?

That's a golden question.

How can I add value to their lives?

And what an honor it is to add value to someone's life.

Last question: what are their needs?

How does Jesus want me to meet those needs?

And here's our question.

How does Jesus want me to help meet their needs in a way that makes the gospel real?

Because in all of these things, natural, normal conversations will happen.

They just do.

Nobody has to teach you how to tell your own story.

You were there, you lived it.

If it's natural to you, it will naturally flow out of your mouth and into conversation.

And what a relief that we don't have to remember the second of the four spiritual laws in order to make God happy with all of that.

Yeah.

So, Father, here we are, different personalities, different baggage, different life experience.

But we all love you.

And we all know, we all know somebody who we would love to call brother or sister.

So we need natural and normal ways to be their friend, to add value to their lives, to engage them in conversation, and to show them that you are real and alive and good and knowable and approachable.

You're certainly the best thing that's ever happened to me.

And I am so incredibly grateful.

I can't not talk about what I love most.

But God, I want it to be natural and normal and not offensive, honestly, without the baggage of trying to be PC.

So we need help.

Here we are.

We need help with the waiter who takes care of us at lunch and the guy at the gas station and the lady at King Supers who checks us out and the next door neighbor and the person who I can hear snoring across the hall in my house.

Need a lot of help.

Jesus come and lift off of us the baggage, any baggage that we have.

Make us into people who love you so much we can't not share you through a smile and a touch and an act of kindness and a word and a seed and some water, some tending to the garden, and maybe even see some harvest.

So thank you for the royal opportunity of sharing your story through ours.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.